WAY TO GURUJI

The Srimad Bhagavatam describes how the trees in Vrindavana are bowing down due to their heavy fruits. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu explained this by describing how a person who has the fruits of good qualities is like a tree with good fruits. The weights of the fruits cause the tree to bow down to everyone. But a tree that doesn’t have good fruits stands up very straight, doesn’t bow to anyone.

A person who has character, amanina manadena, is eager to offer respect to the divinity, the spiritual essence within everyone, everywhere. And a person who doesn’t have that character very egoistically thinks I am higher, greater than others.

A little test of whether you have made genuine spiritual advancement – if you think you are better than anyone that means you are in a spiritual diseased condition.

We may consider ourselves fortunate and may want to share that fortune with people who are not so fortunate. But our fortune is not because of me, because I am better than you, but because of Radharani and Krsna’s grace. It doesn’t make me better than you. Because the potential of that grace is within you too. So I bow to that potential within you.

When we understand that it is this grace that is empowering us, it humbles us, it doesn’t make us egocentric.

When we become proud of Krishna, we become humble. When we are proud of ourself, to that extent we can’t be proud of Krishna because we are taking credit.

Ahankara vimudhatma. This is the basic principle of material bondage – this ego – I am the doer, the controller, enjoyer and proprietor.

So Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu described how like a tree, with the good ripe fruits of spiritual qualities we should offer all respects and bow down to Krishna in every situation, and to bow down to Krishna in the heart of all living beings in an appropriate way. — Radhanath Swami

We are trying to find the treasure of happiness. We desire to share something wonderful from that treasure with the world—but we don’t realize that treasure is within our own hearts. If we do not find it there, we will find it nowhere else. But that treasure is covered by dirt—the dirt of false ego, the dirt of anger, the dirt of greed, the dirt of lust, the dirt of envy and the dirt of illusion. There is also the dirt of so many misconceptions. If we simply clean all the dirt from our consciousness, we will find the ultimate source of all of our aspirations—love, peace and truth.

The Vaishnava philosophy, the philosophy of Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhagavada-gita, and of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Vallabhacaraya, Ramanujacarya, Madhavacarya – they have all taught us that the Absolute Truth is the source of everything – it is perfect and complete and everything emanating from it is perfect and complete. This whole world is God’s energy and property. If we truly see it in this way then we will become free from greed, envy, anger and lust because we will understand that we are not the proprietor but rather the caretaker. If we see someone else doing well, we will celebrate their good fortune because we’ll understand that we are all brothers and sisters, spirit souls, children of God. There will be no envy. Exploitation is a symptom of the disease of an egoistic heart. Compassion is a symptom of a person who has found inner fulfillment within the heart.

It is so important in the world today to understand that we must build our lives, our relationships with other living beings (humans and other species of life), and our relationship with Mother Earth on the principle that everything is sacred. If we see this world as God’s energy and property then we are actually seeing it in its true spiritual nature. If we don’t see the world in relation to God, then we see it as, ‘This is mine; this is yours.’ So much conflict. True religion is meant to unite people, not to divide people.

Therefore, it is our sacred duty to God to honor and respect everything in this world as His sacred property and to use it in service. - Radhanath Swami

October 22, 2013

In a calendar of meditations, I once read how everyone is happy in Goloka Vrindavan… the calves, cats, dogs, humans, etc. What is the secret that explains how everyone is happy and content in Vrindavan? The secret is that everyone is serving Krishna according to their capacity, and therefore everyone appreciates each other and there is no envy.

In this meditation Srila Prabhupada is explaining the consciousness of Vrindavan, and the spiritual psychology of the soul that brings us this ananda, or happiness. The reason why all the different residents of Vrindavan are happy is because they are all immersed in serving Krishna according to their capacity. And they are all appreciating everyone else’s service to Krishna according to their capacity.

The calves for example, are so happy because they feel that their service is so important. Krishna is rasa bihari – he is the enjoyer and king of loving exchanges and in this way he makes everyone feel so important.

In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says suhridam sarva butanam, which means that the Lord, who is present within every heart, is the most intimate friend for every living being. Wherever there is life, there is the presence of an atma, a soul. And according to how closely we connect with our own atma, we connect likewise with the Lord and his presence and friendship in our life. On the other hand, if we are in a false conception of ego (misconceiving that “I am this body, I am this mind, and all things are in relationship to my body), this creates so much division.

This misconception of the self as being a body and a mind instead of a soul inflates the ego. Where there is ego, if we do something better than someone else, we become arrogant, which leads to discrediting and not appreciating people. And if somebody else is doing better, we become depressed, thinking “I am worthless and useless.” Or we could become envious, where we really want to hurt the person or see them fail so it doesn’t hurt me so badly.

These are all byproducts of the false ego, which puts us in a state of consciousness where we can potentially be envious of anybody. But when we actually understand the glory of our own spiritual nature, there can be nothing better than who we are. We are eternal, full of knowledge and bliss, and part of God. What a wonderful experience. Not just theoretically thinking, “I am, I am, I am.” We are actually there; we are the eternal souls seeing through our eyes, speaking with our tongues, and moving utilizing our bodies in so many ways. And our actions, decisions and words are no longer of the nature of, “I am so empty and lonely and I need more of this and that and I will do whatever is necessary to get that pleasure, power, money.”

When we just work and work and work, we don’t find true satisfaction. But when we come into contact with the atma, the living force and true self, there is so much joy, so much meaning and love. There’s love for Krishna and naturally love for every living being. And with such respect for everyone there could be no envy, because we can actually learn to appreciate others. In this state our every action, desire and thought is to share that love. There is no more powerfully motivating force in the world than love.

When we actually enter into the realm of the soul and we experience the infinite love of Krishna, the love of God for us, who loves us for who we are on this spiritual platform, there is just nothing like it. The calves in Vrindavan are thinking, “Krishna loves me and I am so happy and I wouldn’t trade this situation for the world.”

There are so many inevitable differences among us, such as the way we were brought up, what we may like or dislike, how we may think, or what our tendencies and inclinations are. There are so many differences, but we all agree on this one principle – that we are here to make Krishna happy and He is in the center.

So this is Vrindavan, the place where we can appreciate Krishna in the heart of all living entities and we appreciate the potential within them. That is what gives Krishna happiness, that attitude. — Radhnath Swami

Jai Shri Krishna

Jai Shri Krishna

How can one attain the transcendental love for krishna?

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhakthivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, Founder Acharya, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, explains the words of Krishna in BHAGAVAD GITA AS IT IS (C-4, T-10):

Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of Me--and thus they all attained transcendental love for Me.

PURPORT

As described above, it is very difficult for a person who is too materially affected to understand the personal nature of the Supreme Absolute Truth. Generally, people who are attached to the bodilyconception of life are so absorbed in materialism that it is almost impossible for them to understand that there is a transcendental body which is imperishable, full of knowledge and eternally blissful. In thematerialistic concept, the body is perishable, full of ignorance and completely miserable. Therefore, people in general keep this same bodily idea in mind when they are informed of the personal form of theLord. For such materialistic men, the form of the gigantic material manifestation is supreme. Consequently they consider the Supreme to be impersonal. And because they are too materially absorbed, theconception of retaining the personality after liberation from matter frightens them. When they are informed that spiritual life is also individual and personal, they become afraid of becoming persons again,and so they naturally prefer a kind of merging into the impersonal void. Generally, they compare the living entities to the bubbles of the ocean, which merge into the ocean. That is the highest perfection ofspiritual existence attainable without individual personality. This is a kind of fearful stage of life, devoid of perfect knowledge of spiritual existence. Furthermore there are many persons who cannot understand spiritual existence at all. Being embarrassed by so many theories and by contradictions of various types of philosophical speculation, they become disgusted or angry and foolishly conclude that there is no supreme cause and that everything is ultimately void. Such people are in a diseased condition of life. Some people are too materially attached and therefore do not give attention to spiritual life, some of them want to merge into the supreme spiritual cause, and some of them disbelieve in everything, being angry at all sorts of spiritual speculation out of hopelessness. This last class of men take to the shelter of some kind of intoxication, and their affective hallucinations are sometimes accepted as spiritual vision. One has to get rid of all three stages of attachment to the material world, negligence of spiritual life, fear of a spiritual personal identity, and the conception of void that underlies the frustration of life. To get free from these three stages of the material concept of life, one has to take complete shelter of the Lord, guided by the bona fide spiritual master, and follow the disciplines and regulative principles of devotional life. The last stage of the devotional life is called bhava, or transcendental love of Godhead.

According to Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.4.15-16), the science of devotional service:

"In the beginning one must have a preliminary desire for self realization. This will bring o ne to the stage of trying to associate with persons who are spiritually elevated. In the next stage one becomes initiated by an elevated spiritual master, and under his instruction the neophyte devotee begins the process of devotional service. By execution of devotional service under the guidance of the spiritual master, one becomes free from all material attachment, attains steadiness in self-realization, and acquires a taste forhearing about the Absolute Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna. This taste leads one further forward to attachment for Krsna consciousness, which is matured in bhava, or the preliminary stage of transcendental love of God. Real love for God is called prema, the highest perfectional stage of life."

In the prema stage there is constant engagement in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. So, by the slow process of devotional service, under the guidance of the bona fide spiritual master, one can attain the highest stage, being freed from all material attachment, from the fearfulness of one's individualspiritual personality, and from the frustrations resulting from void philosophy. Then one can ultimately attain to the abode of the Supreme Lord.

You all must have heard the story of how Lord Krishna lifted the huge Mount Govardhana entirely on his little finger. The (prefix) ‘Go-’ means knowledge, and knowledge is so vast, like a huge mountain. But one who has blossomed in knowledge can lift even a huge mountain very easily and effortlessly, using just his little finger. Can you lift anything with your little finger? You cannot actually lift anything using the little finger, isn’t it? But here, Lord Krishna lifted the entire Mount Govardhana using just his little finger. The word ¬Govardhana means that which enhances and augments our knowledge. So when we stand in the enclosure of knowledge, we receive a protection, a shield from the storm and the heavy rain (signifying misery and suffering). To shelter yourself from the miseries of the world, you must come under the protection of Mount Govardhana (knowledge), and by doing this you will continue to blossom, and progress more and more in knowledge.

The word ‘Go’ has four different meanings: Jnana (knowledge), Gaman (travel),Prapti (to receive) and Moksha (liberation). Gaman means to keep on moving ahead in life and not look back at the past. Prapti means to reflect upon all that you have received. When you look back at your life and reflect upon what you have received, you will realize that you have received nothing other than knowledge in your life (meaning: everything else received in life being momentary or temporary). When death comes before you, there will be only two questions to answer for yourself: one is how much knowledge have you received, and second is how much love have you given to everyone around you. That is all there is to the act of giving and receiving in life. In receiving, you have to reflect on how much knowledge have you received, and in giving you must see how much love have you shared with everyone. When such knowledge increases in your life, then that is what Prapti is. So all four of these: Jnana, Gaman, Prapti andMoksha come to you when you are under the protection of Govardhana, which the Lord lifted so simply with his little finger.

When Lord Krishna lifted the mountain, all his other Gwalas (cowherd friends) also stood with Him below the mountain and placed their bamboo sticks to lend support to the mountain. They wanted to feel that they too are a part of this and are contributing in some way. They too wanted to satisfy that sense of doership in them. The meaning from this is: we must not think since that God will do everything, why should we make any efforts? No, you too should make your efforts and put in your stick along with the others (contribute in upholding the mountain). God is anyway doing everything, but does not mean that you do not do anything and remain idle. No, you too have to contribute your efforts and place your stick under the mountain. So the deeper meaning here is that we must do our duty and what we need to do. Instead of being idle and negligent, we must become proactive and responsible. Doing this combines all the three together: Karma,Jnana and also Bhakti (devotion).

How is that so? To save oneself from misery and suffering, one cries out to the Lord for safety with a sense of love and faith, this is Bhakti. Placing your own stick under the mountain (making one’s efforts or doing one’s duty) is Karma Yoga. And knowing that the Lord is upholding everything and taking care is Jnana. All three are important in life.

— with sri sri ravishankarji.

At Kurukshetra, under the very banyan tree where Krishna originally spoke to Arjuna, I first read the Bhagavad-gita. I had read many spiritual texts in my travels but the Gita struck me as a book that was so highly practical.

I read that Krishna spoke to his disciple Arjuna, who was about to shrink from his calling in the face of insurmountable obstacles. The Gita had been spoken on a battlefield because life itself is a battle where evil perpetually attacks good and our sacred ideals are destined to be tested. We will all be confronted by grave dangers and fearsome demons within and without. There is much to be gained from facing these aggressors with integrity and faith. Krishna’s timeless call culminates in the practice of selfless devotion, determination, and spiritual absorption as the means to access a power beyond our own to overcome all fear — the power of God’s love.

In that sanctified place, the Bhagavad-gita’s message penetrated me so deeply I felt as if Krishna were personally speaking to me on every page. I read several chapters each day, and was struck by how powerfully they revealed the science of self-realization beyond sectarian or historical boundaries. The Gita elucidates such intricacies as how the soul is related to God, how that changeless soul is affected by material nature, how karma (the natural law of action and reaction) affects all of us, and how the imperceptible influence of time acts on creation. As a lonesome wanderer seeking truth, where danger, temptation and fear could pounce on me at any moment, I found solace and direction in those immortal words. In Kurukshetra, the Bhagavad-gita became my handbook on how to live.

I once wondered — when Arjuna wanted peace, why did Krishna speak philosophy to impel him to fight? The Bhagavad-gita asserts that lasting peace is possible only when a person first makes peace with God in his or her own heart. Only when we are peaceful within can we act in ways that will promote peace without. And we can have internal peace only when we are in harmony with our internal nature, which is that we are neither gross bodies nor subtle minds, but non-material souls, beloved children of God. Therefore, we can achieve our right to real peace and happiness not by making patchwork arrangements in this world of inescapable death, but by reviving our innate love for God and returning back to His eternal abode.

Although Bhagavad-gita is sacred for Indians in general and Hindus in particular, the appreciation of Bhagavad-gita is not limited to Vedic circles. Many Western scholars have found the Bhagavad-gita to be amazingly coherent and cogent. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s remark is a sample: “In the great book of India, the Bhagavad-gita, an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence, which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions that exercise us.” —Radhanath Swami

Gaura Purnima - Kirtan Teachings on the Day of the Appearance of Sri Caitanya

Our true quest must be for the fourth artha, that is vidu or moksa. The majority of people today yearn for the third artha that is kama. When you eat you are happy. When you are appointed a judge of the high court you feel elated. You are delighted when presented with a welcome address by some institution, aren't you? Such types of happiness are not enduring. The means by which such happiness is earned is porul. Porul may be corn, money, and house. It is this porul that is the way to happiness. But the pleasure gained from material possessions is momentary and you keep constantly hungering for more.

Moksa is the state of supreme bliss and there is no quest beyond it. We keep going from place to place and suffer hardships of all kinds. Our destination is our home. A prisoner goes to his vidu or his home after he is released. But the word vidu also means release or liberation. Since we are now imprisoned in our body, we commit the grave mistake of believing that we are the body. The body is in fact our goal. Our real home is the bliss called moksa. We must find release from the goal that is our body and dwell in our true home. God has sentenced us to goal (that is he has imprisoned us in our body) for our sins. If we practice virtue he will condone our sins and release us from the prison of our body before the expiry of the sentence. We must desist from committing sinful acts so that our term of imprisonment is not extended and endeavor to free ourselves and arrive in our true home, our true home that is the Lord. This home is bliss that passeth understanding, bliss that is not bound by the limitations of time, space and matter.

Lastly, we speak of the first purusartha, dharma. Dharma denotes beneficent action, good or virtuous deeds. The word has come to mean giving, charity. "Give me dharmam. Do dharmam, mother, " cries the beggar. We speak of "dana-dharma" [as a portmanteau word]. The commandments relating to charity are called "ara-kattalai"in Tamil. Looked at in this way, giving away our artha or porul will be seen to be dharma. But how do we, in the first place, acquire the goods to be given away in charity? The charity practiced in our former birth- by giving away our artha- it is that brings us rewards in this birth. The very purpose of owning material goods is the practice of dharma. Just as material possessions are a means of pleasure, so is dharma a means of material possessions. It is not charity alone that yields rewards in the form of material goods; all dharma will bring their own material rewards.

If we practice dharma without expecting any reward in the belief that Isvara gives us what he wills- and in a spirit of dedication, the impurities tainting our being will be removed and we will obtain the bliss that is exalted. The pursuit of dharma that brings in its wake material rewards will itself become the means of attaining the Paramporul. Thus we see that dharma, while being an instrument for making material gain and through it of pleasure, becomes the means of liberation also if it is practiced unselfishly. Through it we acquire material goods and are helped to keep up the practice of dharma. This means that artha itself becomes a basis of dharma. It is kama or desire alone that neither fulfils itself nor becomes an instrument of fulfilling some other purpose. It is like the water poured on burning sands. Worse, it is an instrument that destroys everything dharmic thoughts, material possessions, liberation it-self.

All the same it is difficult, to start with, to be without any desire altogether. Religion serves to rein in desire little by little and take a man, step by step, from petty ephemeral pleasure to the ultimate bliss. First we are taught the meaning and implications of dharma and how to practice it, then we are instructed in the right manner in which material goods are to be acquired so as to practice this dharma; and, thirdly, we are taught the proper manner in which desires may be satisfied. It is a process of gaining maturity and wisdom to forsake petty pleasure for the ultimate bliss of moksa.

Moksa is release from all attachments. It is a state in which the Self remains ever in untrammeled freedom and blessedness. The chief purpose of religion is to teach us how this supreme state may be attained.

We know for certain that ordinary people do not achieve eternal happiness. The purpose of any religion is to lead them towards such happiness. Everlasting blessedness is obtained only by forsaking the quest for petty pleasures. The dictates of dharma help us to abandon the pursuit of sensual enjoyments and endeavor for eternal bliss. They are also essential to create a social order that has the same high purpose, the liberation of all. Religion, with its goal of liberation, lays down the tenets of dharma. That is why the great understand the word dharma itself to mean religion.

Naraka Chaturdashi...... Lord Krsna killed the demon Narakasura and released the 16100 princesses held captive by this asura. This story of Narakasura is detailed in the 59th Chapter of the 10th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. Lord Kṛṣṇa killed Narakāsura, the son of the earth-goddess, and married the thousands of maidens the demon had kidnapped. It also describes how the Lord stole the pārijāta tree from heaven and how He behaved like an ordinary householder in each of His palaces. After Narakāsura stole Lord Varuṇa's umbrella, mother Aditi's earrings, and the playground of the demigods known as Maṇi-parvata, Indra went to Dvārakā and described the demons transgressions to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Together with Queen Satyabhāmā, the Lord mounted His carrier Garuḍa and traveled to the capital of Narakāsura's kingdom. On a field outside the city He decapitated the demon Mura with His disc. Then He fought Mura's seven sons and sent them all to the abode of death, after which Narakāsura himself entered the battlefield on the back of an elephant. Naraka threw his śakti lance at Śrī Kṛṣṇa, but the weapon proved ineffective, and the Lord cut the demon's entire army to pieces. Finally, with His sharp-edged disc Kṛṣṇa cut off Narakāsura's head. The earth-goddess, Pṛthivī, then approached Lord Kṛṣṇa and gave Him the various items Narakāsura had stolen. She offered prayers to the Lord and presented Naraka's frightened son at Lord Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet. After pacifying the demon's son, Kṛṣṇa entered Narakāsura's palace, where He found sixteen thousand one hundred young women. As soon as they caught sight of the Lord, they all decided to accept Him as their husband. The Lord sent them to Dvārakā along with a great quantity of treasure and then went with Queen Satyabhāmā to the abode of Indra. There He returned Aditi's earrings, and Indra and his wife, Śacī-devī, worshiped Him. On Satyabhāmā's request, Lord Kṛṣṇa uprooted the heavenly pārijāta tree and put it on the back of Garuḍa. After defeating Indra and the other demigods who opposed His taking of the tree, Kṛṣṇa returned with Queen Satyabhāmā to Dvārakā, where He planted it in a garden adjacent to Satyabhāmā's palace. Indra had originally come to Lord Kṛṣṇa offering obeisances and begging Him to kill Narakāsura, but afterwards, when his business had been accomplished, he quarreled with the Lord. The demigods are prone to anger because they become intoxicated with pride in their opulences. The infallible Supreme Lord manifested Himself in sixteen thousand one hundred separate forms and married each of the sixteen thousand one hundred brides in a different temple. He took up the required activities of household life just like an ordinary person, accepting various kinds of service from each of His many wives.

The Highest Yoga is to Love

The soul by nature, constitutionally and eternally, is meant to love. And that is why the world is so mad to express love, to channel this propensity to love someone, somewhere and somehow. What kind of songs do most people listen to? What kind of novels do most people read? What kind of cinemas do most people watch? What is the subject of most television series? It’s all about love. People are trying to find some means to find inner satisfaction through expressing this insatiable energy to love.

Krishna explains in Bhagavad-gita that of all types of yogis, of all processes of yoga, the highest is to love. The Srimad Bhagavatam explains that there may be many who achieve impersonal liberation, and there may be millions who attain mystic powers, but none can find real peace. Only one who has awakened the propensity to love God within the heart can achieve real peace. So as we come closer to awakening that love, we’re actually making real progress in our life. – Radhanath Swami